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Anticancer Activity Found in Berry Extracts

Strawberries, blueberries, and
raspberries contain chemicals found to protect cultured cells against cervical
and breast cancer.

That's a new finding from Agricultural
Research Service plant pathologist David E. Wedge at ARS' Natural Products
Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, Mississippi. He is working with Lyndon L.
Larcom, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, Clemson
University-South Carolina, along with scientists at the Thad Cochran National
Center for Natural Products Research, University of Mississippi-Oxford, and the
ARS Small Fruit Research Station, Poplarville, Mississippi.

Cervical cancer, the third most common type of cancer in women, affects about 2
to 3 percent of all women over age 40. One in eight or nine American women will
develop breast cancer at some point in her life, based on full life expectancy.
After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in
U.S. women and is second only to lung cancer in cancer-related deaths.

"The number of these fatalities may be reduced by dietary
intervention," says Wedge. "Research on dietary influences on cancer
has led to identifying nearly 1,000 phytochemicals with cancer-prevention
roles. Yet, fewer than 25 have been tested in clinical trials."

Nutraceuticals are foods, or parts of foods (phytochemicals), that provide
medical or health benefitsincluding prevention and treatment of disease.

Freeze-dried fruits of two cultivars of blueberry (Triblue and Premier) and
strawberry (Carlsbad and Sweet Charlie) were sequentially extracted with
several solvents. Clemson researchers tested these extracts against cultures of
two aggressive cervical cancer cell lines (CaSki and SiHa) and two breast
cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and T47-D) with different requirements for estrogen.

They added extracts to the growing cancer cell cultures, incubated them for 48
hours, and then assessed the cells' metabolic activity by measuring the
activity of enzymes involved in the cellular reactions for energy production.

"Extracts from strawberry and blueberry significantly decreased the growth
of cervical and breast cancer cells," says Wedge. "Extracts of Sweet
Charlie strawberry were most effective in decreasing the growth of breast
cancer cells, and it did so by 77 percent. Premier blueberry was most
effective81 percentat decreasing the growth of cervical cancer
cells."

Phytochemicals available from foods may affect production and early growth of
tumors in humans by altering how cells respond to genetic damage or a
carcinogenic agent. The study of fresh fruits for use in dietary prevention of,
intervention in, and recovery from cancer is ongoing at ARS' Oxford lab and
Clemson University.

Future studies lie in identifying specific phytochemicals active against each
cell line. These studies support information that phytochemicals from fruits in
our diet may inhibit initiation and proliferation of some types of cancer.

"This research should provide important data and help clarify anticancer
and nutraceutical benefits of small fruits that have been attributed to some
phytochemicals," says Wedge.

This research is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Fund for Rural
America Grant.By Hank Becker,
Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.

This research is part of New Uses, Quality, and Marketability of Plant and
Animal Products, an ARS National Program (#306) described on the World Wide Web
at http://www.nps.ars.usda.gov.